A New Safeway Deal... Free Movie Tickets!

I saw while I was in the store doing my last free $20 run, and thought hmmm... I looked in last weeks flyer ad.. nothing.... and looked in the one I got today... nothing. Hmmmmm...

But! Look here at safeway.com and you will see the deals. I may ask my grandpa if I can go shopping for him... :-) Free movie tickets sound great to me! We love the movies, but a date night at the theatre adds up really really fast!

And... my birthday is coming up. (read-- BIG SMILEY FACE!) There had better be something decent on then!!!

Mommy Perspective

I learned something yesterday. Here's the story:

Last Friday, Gabe's mom took the girls for the afternoon so I could (hopefully) finish painting Kiera's room. The poor thing has had a slightly less-than-half painted room since (gulp!) January of last year. Yes, that is over a year since I have worked on it. So, it was time to get it done. Only, I didn't... Gabe and I decided to go on a date before he went to work (MUCH more important than painting, don't you think?) so my time was cut a little short. And that is why I didn't finish :-)

I only had a 2-3 foot wide section, floor to ceiling, to finish. Not that much, right? Well, the reason I hadn't worked on it in so long was because Kiera is how old? Right, 22 months. So, I can't work on it when she is awake, and I can't work on it when she is sleeping, so... I couldn't work on it. (In my mind.)

Yesterday I decided -OK, this is only maybe 10-15 minutes of painting. I have everything ready to go, so let's do this. I talked to the girls, told them what I was going to do, told them they needed to stay in Melia's room and play together, and that I would be done in just a bit. With only two interruptions - poopy diaper and phone call- I did finish. And it looks great! (It is kind of an Orchid purple color.)

My lesson? To not approach training my children with the foreshadowing of failure. I haven't worked on painting because I KNEW it would fail. But when I knew I could finish, knew I could hear them if something was wrong, knew Kiera couldn't open the door herself, we were successful. And even if we weren't, I should have looked at it as a training session, not as a success/failure venture. But a good training session for me it was :-)

The ending? Melia says "OH MOMMA! You haven't finished painting my room yet!"

Why? Her color is ocean blue on the Nemo theme. I didn't want to finish it. Two walls is dark enough :-) Now, how do I convince her of this?

Sorry about the pause...

I got sick. Ugh. Just a "less-than-24-hour" bug, but still, what a pain. Fevers, chills, aches, nausea, weak.... so much fun to be stuck on the couch or in bed. I didn't even have a new book! Woe is meee!!!!

But, on the up side, Gabe and I are almost caught up on our Office episodes, just in time for the new (continuing?) season to start. Someone let me know please--- were there episodes in the fall?? We are almost done w/ season 3... and I'm just wondering if there were a few before the writer's strike did what it did....

We just started watching it. I thought Gabe was crazy when he said he wanted to. It looked soo...well.. slow. Yeah, that's it. Slow. So he watched it by himself, and I would overhear things going on... and wonder "What the?" And I would peek around the corner and ask. Pretty soon I was sorta caught up on the fact that Dwight is Dwight... and Jim is Jim... and Michael is painful. Michael was the main reason I did not want to watch it. Sometimes it hurts to listen to him. Like, really, really, painful "oh, no, he didn't.. He did! Turn it off! I can't stand it anymore!"

And then, the kiss. Let me tell you-- I don't normally get that involved in TV relationships, but whoa! I haven't been that shocked and happy and elated since Ross kissed Rachael (Friends.. remember that one?) Or shocked and freaked out and screaming at the TV when Sydney woke up after months and Vaughn had a wedding ring, and then the season ended (Alias...).

Ha. Anyway, this is just a quick (sorta) hello after being absent for 36+ hours. So.. Hello! I'm glad to be back! (And I am, by the way. Woke up this morning feeling 100%. Amazing, those naughty little viruses...)

And that is not funny at all....

Gabe's response when I told him that Kiera threw my hairbrush in the toilet.

Some Hairy Pics

I did another hair treatment, and I have some pictures to share with you :-)

This is Curzon, aka Kerzon (spelling dispute w/ Gabe). He was gettin' all lovey, so I had to snap some shots of him. Note the plastic bag and clothespins underneath him. I was trying to show you how prepared I was this time.
I took this one to show you how gloppy it is...
And here is me... scary pic I know.... But see how nicely my hair is piled up this time? I think it was because I wasn't so afraid to get dirty, I knew I just needed to use both hands and get it done.
This is Melia's beautiful over-the-top french braid. I know your question-- how does she sit still for that? Answer: She wants it done, so she knows she has to. She calls it her "like-a-princess" braid.
And the finished look, once I took the back out of the pony it was in.

Yep, I do have more to share from when I took it out... She was a wild woman on camera ;-)

Check back tomorrow, and hopefully I will have gotten them loaded by then :-)

Pride... again

Close your eyes. Wait, never mind. If you do that, you can't read! Silly me...

Anyway. We are going on another field trip. This one is down a thought path I took today, and at the end -- well, of course I have to share it.

I am driving along, wondering when God will bless us (read ME) with a different van. You know... a cute one. I spot them as I drive along; "Hey God! I like that green one! Or that steel blue one.... OOOHHHH look at that pretty aqua Dodge Grand Caravan (sorry jane, I like yours the best)" and I start to wander down that road. (I think it is called self-pity... I am sure you can clarify this for me. Be objective :-)

And later, I venture a little further. I wonder what my friends or co-bible-studiers would say... would they pray for me to have a pretty van? Because it is my heart's desire... (my head says) And sometimes I really am embarassed to be driving this one. But of course, I appreciate this one as God's blessing. I just wish it was prettier. What would they say if I prayed for contentment?

And... it came. Like His answers always do. Hard. Real. And truthful. Lovingly molding my heart.

They would say that every time you feel embarassed about driving this ugly blessing, it is ME showing you how prideful you still are, and how far you have to go before you can handle a pretty blessing without being selfishly proud of it.

Ouch.

So, there you have it. Just how far I still have to go. Thank you, Father God, that You are not done with me yet. Because I truly do have so far to go before my testimony can be a door through which You are all others can see.

So... Treasure Hunting

I tried to post some pictures this morning, but I think blogger is having issues. I tried it three times, and each time something different went wrong.

So, I will fall back on what I had promised before! My exciting treasure hunting post!

Life with toddlers is... adventurous. If I can slow down long enough to enjoy the ride. With Melia, we never really had trouble with her "eating" things she wasn't supposed to. Actually, that is not completely true. But never like we have had with Kiera.

Her diapers have been loaded with so much loot, I cannot even remember everything. We've been surprised with polly pocket shoes.... tiny Christmas lights (from a necklace).... actual gems (from one of Melia's treasure rock things-- it's a toy).... whole apricots (dried... or they were anyway)... stickers......whole almonds...

For your future reference... You might want to watch out when I say I have another Treasure Hunting post coming up. But for now, I will just apologize if you were eating while you were reading. I am sorry. Really. I will abstain from typing my giggles. For now.

My Free Sunday

I am thoroughly enjoying my free Sunday. By "free," I mean I don't have to work. I should have, but this was supposed to be our vacation weekend with the church to Schweitzer Ski Resort, but the chapel lodge had a cracked beam and canceled our trip. Thank you God, that this weekend has worked out so well -- I was concerned that I would be melancholy all weekend, wishing we were up in the snow.

Kiera is still sick. Not throwing up today, but she does have a low-grade fever (99's). She has been napping most of the day. Very very wimpy. She mumbles when she wants something, so we know she doesn't feel good.

Melia and I went to church this morning, leaving Gabe w/ Kiera. He had plenty to do, so I didn't feel too guilty. When we arrived home, we jumped in to helping Daddy with prepping the hearth (?-- we don't know what else to call it!). He made the base of it, and today he's putting it in and we tiled it! He shot me a good look when I said "Just think! If we'd gone out out and blown $400+ on this thing, we would have missed out on how much fun it was to make!" Apparently, the only part I got to be involved in was the "only" fun part about it...

I will post pictures soon-- when it is complete. Right now the mortar is drying, then we will grout, and then put the stove on. (I guess. I really have no idea what I am talking about...) This is my first time tiling. He agreed with me saying that we probably should NOT have done it ourselves, as I loved the tiling part and can't wait to find something to tile again... Scary? I know. But you should see how great it looks! Yes, I know. You will. Soon! I promise!

I hate illness

Illness is like children. Or at least children's illnesses. No handbook. Good luck figuring out what is going on, because once you do, it will change, and around you go again.

Kiera has thrown up three times this morning. Once before she woke up... then we gave her some leftover french toast and very diluted apple juice for breakfast to see what would happen. Up it came. Then, we cut it down to just apple juice to see about that. Okay, so I added one cracker, then another. Ok, so after a while a let her have one grape. Whoops. too much. Back to apple juice and cracker.

So, no fever, no prior symptoms... Just a sensitive stomach?

Fun stuff, like playing Operation, only when I mess up, I am steam cleaning the carpet! :-)

I am not complaining, really, just whining that kids can't wake up and tell me what I need to do to make them better..... You know, sit up in bed and say "don't feed me anything solid for 5 hours please. Then I will be better."

As always, any parenting thoughts and suggestions are alway appreciated, because on days like this, I feel completely incompetant.

Another great Safeway savings... only a *little* more complicated

Just a little. I promise. You will only pull a small section of your hair out.

Here is the overview at imommies.com.

I went in today for my first big load. I felt like I did pretty good, with a total savings of $39, total oop of $44, and $20 back for my next trip, which I plan on rolling several times.

Here's how I did my plan:
After scanning the complete list at imommies (which is not store specific...) I seperated my coupons that *should* work into a completely seperate envelope. I paper clipped the different aisles... one for cereal, one for juice, one for pillsbury/Betty crocker... You get the picture. Then I went to Safeway with BOTH my girls, who did pretty good and got cookies at the end (though, yes, I did not connect the two in order to avoid bribing...I am trying a little!). We started at one end and worked our way through until we had 25 items. (Lots of things were not marked, so I played it safe and only bought things that had the rally sticker on the price tag)

Special Note: Something that I have hated in the past I loved today, and will for sure use again. The carts with the cup holders... The cup holders make perfect coupon holders, as long as I can keep Kiera from grabbing them.

Anyway, I went through the line and the cashier and elderly lady behind me were amazed at all my savings (like I said, $29 in sales, $10 in coupons) BUT the catalina did not print! Not even a $10 or a $5 one!!! So, I had to go to customer service and ask what I did wrong... they called a manager and he counted my items, took a ricearoni, and rang up something that printed me out a $20 coupon. I was very thankful, but asked if he had a list of participating items... of course not. I had called before, but hoped that a manager would help me more. But he did go print out the store-wide list for me... exactly what you can find linked at imommies, of course....

So, I felt pretty happy. It did take some work, but with the coupons it turned out to be worth it. And if you don't want to work? Well, just go in and buy 25 boxes of RiceARoni, and start rolling... :-) Happy Couponing!

The Most Funny Moments

What is one of the funniest moments when you have young children around?

Come on. I am sure you can think of a few.

What absolutely cracks you up?

Mine?

When they are surprised by their own toot.

7 Reasons I Love My Valentine

Thanks to my darling friend Rachael, I now have a Valentine Post! (I didn't have anything in mind... really.)

7 Reasons I Adore My Husband ('cause we've been married 7 years...)

7. He is adventurous and a dreamer; ready to jump in w/ both feet on any new idea. Oh, and he will help almost anyone with almost anything.

6. He is creative and smart-- he can fix anything as long as you don't care what it looks like when he's done!

5. He is very very handsome. And not just in my opinion either... ;-)

4. He loves my burned and accidentally spicy Valentines dinners. (Guess what we had tonight?)

3. He loves me, no matter how I look or how blond I can be (I so did not say that). Or how corny I am. despite my giggle fits. even when I feel like a failure, he lifts me up. he even thinks I am a good mom.

2. He is the best father my girls could ask for. And he does better hair than any dad I know.

1. He loves my God too.


HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

LOVE YOU, LOVE ME

Humility

Pride. It is everyone's greatest enemy, or at least mine. Knowing this, I have been praying for the Lord to humble me. A dangerous prayer, for sure. And I had an interesting answer to it last night.

I was at work. Without giving many details, I work with cash and checks, but not at a bank :-) I get it ready to send to the bank. So, I am sorting and counting, counting and sorting... and I receive some checks that were all kinds of bent out of shape. Now, I do have to run checks through an encoder. A particularly tempermental encoder. These were not going to be easy to process. I get all huffy, and decide that I am going to say something about this-- it happens a lot, and really is easily avoided. Just be gentle, that's all.

I walk out to talk to the supervisor, who would then talk to the cashier. But she doesn't want to (just God setting me up). I volunteer, because, in my mind, this is no biggie. I approach the cashier, mention that it would be very helpful to me if she would be a little more gentle with her checks. She becomes defensive, she doesn't manhandle her checks like that, she doesn't know how they got that way. Her helper says the same thing...we didn't do that.

And suddenly a light turns on in my brain. Of course... they didn't do it. It was an accident... preventable, but still an accident. So I let them know what happened, and how they can help to avoid it. Then, I crawl back to my cave.

Now, to clarify. There was nothing wrong with me asking them to help me out. But my heart attitude needed adjusting, so I believe God left that light off so I could go embarass myself before He clicked it on. If I had approached the situation with a servant's heart, it would have been different. But I had a selfish attitude, a "why does this always happen? don't they know how to do this?" attitude. I was insulted, and I was going to do something about it. Instead, God did something about me :-)

The best part is that He has been molding me so much that I immediately identified what happened, and thanked Him for keeping me humble. Not so long ago, I would not have appreciated this lesson. And no way would I have been sharing it with you for your encouragement.

There now my friends- this should make you happy

For all of you who have commented on how you cannot comment on my blog, I have changed my settings just for you.

But you have to promise, if someone leaves an unpleasant comment, please let me know ASAP so I can delete it-- I have no desire to entertain unfavorable arguments or someone's inclination to post rude anonymous comments. It keeps me up at night...

And if you are anonymous, please sign your name! ;-)

Did'ya miss me?

Two whole days I've not talked to you! Did you feel the tendrils of loss creep over your mouse hand? You're starting to love me... I know it!

We had a really fun weekend! For Christmas I bought Gabe and I tickets to go see Jeff Dunham (ventriloquist comedian) in Spokane with some friends, and we dropped the girls off w/ his uncle, aunt and cousins. They all went to Chuck E Cheese for dinner :-) and had tons of fun (except the mouse was too big); Kiera downed the olives first from the pizza, but didn't think the pepperoni was so good.

We went to Chili's w/ our friends - who were able to get seated even though the wait was huge (90 minutes!) and I was reminded that we need to share an entre' when we go out to eat! It is such a waste to get this huge plate of food, and then not be able to eat it. A waste of food and money... So, remind me of that next time we go out, hmm? please?

The show was great! He kept it mostly clean (thankfully) and had a lot of new material (we had already seen Spark of Insanity). My favorite part of comedians is always when they crack themselves up. I just love that, it is so much more funny than the practiced jokes. Especially when the puppet turns to him and says "That's whatcha get for ad-libbing, buddy!"

Then we were able to spend a gloriously relaxing Saturday w/ M, K, A & M (family). Kiera and Melia even came home w/ a few bags of new toys and dress up clothes! God was just so good; we had a great time everywhere we went, the girls traveled fairly well in the 3+ hour trip, we had safe travel and were able to listen to a very thought provoking DVD on the drive. It is one we purchased at the Strategic Perspectives conference, done by Jerome Corsi on his new book "The Late Great USA." (easier to listen than to read, right?) we do have the book too.

Anyway, enough for now... Have a great weekend! (We both get to work today, so our weekend ended last night....)

The Most Amazing Crazy Dog in the Whole World

When she was sick, Melia watched 101 Dalmations for the first time ever. After deciding that it is her new favorite movie, she said that she wants to be a doggy with spots for Halloween.

This morning, she desperately want Halloween to be today. We are talking desperately, tears and everything. In my heart, God was speaking "make her into a doggy." In my head, I am thinking, "how do I get her to stop crying, much less make her think she is a doggy?" So, I told her she needed to go lay down (wayyy to emotional to talk logic). A minute later, she comes running out "Mommy! I can use my red clothes to make me into a doggy!"


Me: "Thank you God!"


We get her red sweats, I cut out lots of white paper spots, and wha-la! She is a doggy! Complete with piggy-tail ears :-)

Notice how Kiera is getting better at actually posing instead of running at the camera!

And by the way, the title here is what Melia called herself... the most amazing crazy dog in the whole world... And while she was trying to get herself into her red sweats, she yelled from the bedroom "MOMMY! My panties are trying to get off!!!" Hmmm. She has a way with words, doesn't she?

Side Note: This was a great morning for me, as I have really been praying for wisdom and patience and persistence lately. While feeling so run down, I lose my patience quickly, and just don't know what to do sometimes. So, to hear God's voice this morning, and to see Him work in her to inspire the "red doggy" look was incredibly encouraging. Again, thank you Lord, for your faithfulness.

Beautiful girls

Look at those eyes.

And those cute little lips.
The bashful glance sideways at the camera...

We have been blessed. Am I right?

Salad Anyone? Areogarden Day 22

Yes, this picture is a few weeks old. But this is what it looked like on Day 22! We have eaten 3 (I think?) salads from this lively little unit, and enjoying them immensely! The lettuce is SO tender, I was terribly afraid to even touch them, but I pinch them off, put them in the fridge for a few hours, and wha-la! Salad! They're very tender when we eat them as well, a little hard to get use to, but now we really like it!

Tender and sweet, on their way to paying for themselves :-)

Does everyone have days like these?

I just feel beat. I was so inspired by Crystal's "get up early" plan that I decided to try it. I am exhausted! And I am not even getting up as early as I had planned! I am only getting up w/ Melia, which means anytime after 7, if I am lucky. I had planned on getting up at 6. I think I need more brain food. More vitamins? As much as I told you I loved my vitamins, I sure have a hard time remembering to take them. I average about once every 2-3 days. Sad isn't it?

So... I am going to post pictures. Just to entertain you... for a little while. I have a great "treasure hunting" post coming up, I just have to finish it!

Hope you feel better today than I do!!!

Giveaway Winner Announcement!

The winner of my Created to be His Help Meet by Debi Pearl giveaway is Cory Yeah Cory!!!

That was incredibly difficult, especially after reading all the comments! I wanted to give one to everyone! But I just prayed over my box of names, and let Melia draw so I didn't have to!

Cory, please leave a comment w/ your email so I can get mailing info from you!

Thanks everyone for entering, and God Bless!

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Beer Bread Recipe

This is one of my favorites-- and it is REALLY easy to make!!! We have this restaurant that makes the most awesome beer bread... I was talking about it one day at work and this guy says, "Hey, I have a really good recipe in my Bachelor's Cookbook." He proceeded to share it with me, and I will forever and ever be oh-so-grateful.

Here you go: Yummy Yummy Beer Bread

3 cups self rising flour
3 T sugar
1 12oz beer
approximately 1 cube butter

Mix flour with sugar, add beer and stir. Butter loaf pan, then melt butter. Place dough in pan; pour melted butter all over the top. Bake at 375* for 1 hour.

This bread is fabulous with soups or salads. It is very heavy and makes a good addition to a comfort food meal. I even stocked up on beer when I found it on clearance last summer at Safeway. The sad part was that I was totally embarassed when I ran into someone from Bible Study on my way out, with the entire bottom of my cart loaded down with beer!

Super Bowl Party at Our House: YEA Giants!!!

This was our Super Bowl dinner- JERK CHICKEN NACHOS

VERY YUMMY! Recipe courtesy of Pampered Chef.

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This really turned out to be a great day. I opened at work so that I could have the evening off to go to a church dessert deal, but then that got moved to next weekend because, of course, of the Super Bowl. So, because Melia was still running a "slight" fever (yesss. she is down to the 99's now, instead of the 102's) we stayed home and watched as a family. Gabe kept fastforwarding the announcers (luuuvvv the DVR) and we enjoyed the commercials. Watched on Spike TV the Professional Eating Halftime show instead of Tom Petty. Ate yummy chicken nachos, jumped for joy when Manning made that last minute (literally) TD pass.... Gabe tried to video me being happy and giddy... he almost did, but I held it in when he jumped to hit the "record" button. So all he has is me sitting on the couch shaking with my hands over my mouth, saying "Yea!" in a teenie tiny voice.

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Melia wanted the Patriots to win, and she bet Gramps a dollar/cookie, so we will have to remember to take him 100 pennies when we go next! She actually went to bed by choice in the 3rd quarter, but Kiera went in her room later while Mommy and Daddy were busy watching the game. Poor Melia had a slightly rude awakening when Kiera climbed up on her bed and sat on her head. SEE?? I told ya... ON-ER-Y!

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Anyway, it really was a fun evening at home, all together, not trying to get anything done. A good reminder that we need to do this more often. Kiera showed her appreciation by climbing in my lap over and over and giving me sloppy kisses, and then smearing melted celebratory chocolate chips on my good white t-shirt!

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Go Giants!

(We really don't follow football; we just root for the underdogs!)

This week: Safeway and Walgreens, plus cute kids

What did you say? My mommy went shopping without me? Boy, she is gonna pay! Here's my good deals this week: Safeway

They have that $10 back on 5 Saralee products, so my ending total was $17.33, then I received $10 catalina, so $7.33 for all that protein! (I had a BOGO Skippy PB, so I got 2/$1.50)

Walgreens

My ending total at Walgreens was $21.64 after my $5/20 coupon. I had a few other coupons too... I will get $18.46 back in rebates, plus I received a $2 off next shopping trip catalina, so my ending OOP was .... drumroll....$.98!!

Oh, and there really were two Propels, but I drank one in the car.... Hey! This takes a lot of brainpower!!!

And RiteAid-- I picked up the Free after Rebate Garneir Fructis Shampoo, plus a free Soy Joy Bar (coupon), and then bought two Arm and Hammer detergents for $5.99 (BOGO), then I should receive $2 rebate on the detergent, so I paid $4 for two detergents and then taxes on the rest. Not too bad!

My mommy's so smart (little does she know) and she is going to teach me all about bargain shopping (yes, because by the time I have child number 10, she will be driving, and will do it all for me!)

Have a great Super Bowl weekend!!!

I'm slackin'

I know, I know. The reason you visit my silly lil' blog is to see pictures of my kiddos. And I have been sadly disappointing you.



Well, here. Maybe this will help!

Poor Kiera, she really is cute, but in all her pictures she is making the most bizarre faces!